Writing forenames in kanji vs kana.

Usually when I see Nakajima's name written in Japanese, her surname is in kanji (中島) and her forename in kana (みゆき). I supposed みゆき was 美雪, beauty + snow; the other day I saw that on a website somewhere and felt more confident about it. But bikenglishさん tells me it's better to write it in kana. そうしようけど。。。どうしてだろうかなぁ。

笑？ (Kanji-only communication).

While Googling lyrics I noticed that someone had included within a sentence a "(笑)"—just the kanji for laugh, without okurigana. Is that equivalent to our saying, eg, (ha ha)? I've often wondered whether Japanese people sometimes communicate just with kanji, like with friends over a cell phone. I don't see why you couldn't ask someone whether they were coming by just texting a "来?", or ask if someone wants to get something to eat by texting "食?", or say it's a beautiful day by texting "晴" or "晴ね".